The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), together with The Coca-Cola Company, on Wednesday celebrated the upskilling of 25 000 female micro entrepreneurs in South Africa, achieved through the entities’ project to empower women entrepreneurs through a joint programme aimed at promoting women’s economic empowerment globally.

Addressing an audience of women-owned small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs), UN Women South Africa multicountry office representative Anne Githuku-Shongwe noted that, four years ago, the UN and Coca-Cola initiated the programme in South Africa, Egypt and Brazil.

She noted that, as the South African small business owners were the most successful in the project, this programme was granted an extension.

Githuku-Shongwe further noted that the project, which was implemented locally by nongovernmental organisation Hand in Hand Southern Africa, involves training women micro entrepreneurs in townships, as well as in urban and peri-urban areas, on basic business skills.

“We want to put an expiration date on gender inequality [in the work space]. Men must end gender inequality in their space and must leave no-one behind,” she said.

She noted that if women had equal access to opportunities, the world’s economy would increase by $26-trillion.

“In South Africa, we need to discuss how to change our low gross domestic product by pulling more women into the economy,” she said.

Githuku-Shongwe stressed that women-owned SMMEs had the power to change the economy, adding that there was a need for more women to work in the informal sector.

“We cannot focus and invest only on women in the formal job market, the real investment is in the informal jobs sector. We are taking steps to reclaim the economy for women.”

Speaking to Engineering News Online on the sidelines of the event, Department of Small Business Development director-general Professor Edith Vries said that government had targets stipulating that women had to benefit 50% from governmental activities.

“As a department we have 53% women in senior management positions in our organisation, excluding our Minister and Deputy Minister, who are also women,” she said, adding that 50% of the department’s small budget was focused on empowering women.

She pointed out that access to finance and markets was a challenge for female entrepreneurs, adding that the “deep patriarchal society we live in makes access to finance especially difficult for women”.

Vries further highlighted violence against women as an obstacle, among other challenges.

“We have heard from women who have participated in this programme that if they become economically active and empowered, their partners sometimes demand their money. If they fail to give in to their partners’ demands, they are often subject to violence.”

Vries said that women were generally excluded from the mainstream economy and that they typically had lower levels of education, adding that men assume that they are more capable and that women need to prove themselves.

“I believe women have to continue organising themselves and often things get done in a team, or group of women, which helps to identify their strength as females.”

She noted that government had set a target to increase the contribution of women-owned SMMEs into the economy by 2019 to 45%.

“Going forward, we are being more deliberate about sectors that we think might be . . . more productive and profitable for female entrepreneurs to enter.”

PROGRAMME ACHIEVEMENTS

In the four years the women entrepreneurs programme has been running, it has also reached 5 133 male entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs have indicated that their income increases by between 5% and 25% after training and discussions with other entrepreneurs and stakeholders.

They also indicated that they were able to save more money, which was either used for reinvestment in their business and buying stock to diversify businesses, or meeting other needs at home.

Women entrepreneurs have also taken the initiative to identify new business opportunities by expanding operations beyond their physical shops – including reaching out to schools and mobile operations, among others.

The programme has also trained trainers and educators. The newly skilled personnel have access to trainer manuals and tools that can help extend entrepreneurship training for the benefit of South Africa’s economy.